The need to protect big trees and ancient forests is becoming ever
more urgent. To meet the bloated demand for pulp, paper and wood products a globalized forest industry uses its full corporate might in plundering the world's dwindling forest resources and siphoning off some of its huge profits to bribe those to comply who could help stop the destruction (ranging
from government bodies to forestry academics). In British Columbia (BC) Canada, the 1993
Clayoquot Sound protest against logging company MacMillan Bloedel was a
turning point of worldwide significance in the environmental movement. Clayoquot Sound is a
UN Biosphere since 2000 but that has not stopped Interfor (International Forest Products)
from planning new assaults, hence the 2006 protest at the BC Legislature (right).

On 28 March 2008 over 1300 people attended BC's
largest environmental protest in 15 years, since the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protest, at the BC Legislature in Victoria
(left). They demanded that the endangered old growth forests and ancient trees of Vancouver Island and the Lower BC
Mainland be protected and that raw log exports be banned. However, despite the many decades of environmental protests
against the barbaric destruction of BC's last ancient forest remnants, the government continues to refuse to enact the
necessary protective legislation. Instead government greenwash rhetoric has become more vocal along with that of its
"partner in crime," the multinational forest industry, while endangered big trees that could still live for
centuries are felled for pulp, paper and wood products.

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee was founded in BC in 1980 and is the largest
membership based wilderness preservation organization in Canada. The Victoria branch has repeatedly held
demonstrations at the BC Legislature demanding "Hands Off The Old Growth" (right). 75 percent of the
productive old growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, most within the last 50 years, including
90 percent of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. It is shocking that no more than 8 percent
of the original ancient forests on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland are protected in parks and
no protection exists for the irreplaceable big trees. Instead the forest industry is targeting the
high value ancient specimens with ages of up to 2,000 years or more. Action:
Ancient
Forests Petition.

"Hands Off The Old Growth," Victoria, BC.
Western Canada Wilderness Committee

Beginning in the 1950s most of Clayoquot Sound was
handed over as Tree Farm Licences (TFLs) to the big logging companies, MacMillan Bloedel and BC Forest Products. TFLs
are leases of public land that permit companies to log old growth forests and convert them into tree farms. The
disastrous result has been that whole watersheds were clearcut logged. Despite the UN Biosphere designation of
Clayoquot Sound, there is still no legislated protection of its rare and endangered forests. Today the big trees on
Meares Island are a great tourist attraction (left).
Some are two millenia in age, such as the "Hanging Garden Cedar," which is 18.3 m in circumference
and over 2,000 years old. These big trees would have been destroyed forever were it not for forest
activists at Clayoquot Sound, both native and non native, who fought a courageous battle to save them. See:
A
Clayoquot Chronology (1996).

Clayoquot logging protest, Victoria, BC, 1985.Photo: Robert Soderland

The Meares Island big trees are standing due to a
logging blockade against MacMillan Bloedel staged in 1984 by First Nations and environmentalists. On 21 April 1984
Meares Island was declared by the Tla o qui aht First Nation to be protected as a Tribal Park: "Total preservation of Meares
Island based on TITLE and survival of our Native way of life." In support, a demonstration was held in 1985
at the BC Legislature in Victoria where protesters erected a 27 ft Nuu chah nulth welcome figure on the front
steps of the colonial edifice (left). It was carved by Tla o qui aht artist Joe David and became an icon of both the
forest protection movement and struggle for Aboriginal Title and Rights. Also in 1985 First Nations were granted an injunction
to stop MacMillan Bloedel from logging the big trees on Meares Island.

During the 1970s rampant clearcutting in Clayoquot Sound more than tripled during the initial agreed
upon TFL cut rate. This display of wanton destruction sparked the beginning of a decades long environmental campaign
and the 1979 formation of
Friends
of Clayoquot Sound. In 1988 when an illegal logging road was discovered in Sulpher Passage,
activists set up a blockade to protect the intact ancient rainforest in Megin Valley. Climber Paul Winstanly is seen
in a hammock tied between two trees high above the newly blasted logging road (right). During the blockade the
court granted an injuction to the logging company with the result that 35 people were arrested including the
distinguished Ahousaht Hereditary Chief Earl Maquinna George.

The BC government announced a "Sustainable Development Task Force" for Clayoquot
Sound in 1989 but clearcut logging continued. In 1993 it released a new land use plan catering to the logging companies,
with over 70 percent of the big tree forests to be clearcut. The plan was rejected by the Clayoquot Sound communities and
further blockades were initiated. A daring feat of resistance was by the Friends of Clayoquot activist Valerie Langer who
positioned herself at the end of a pole laid across a logging bridge (below).

The complicity of the BC in a plan to clearcut Clayoquot Sound resulted in the largest peaceful
civil disobedience in Canadian history with 12,000 citizens taking part in a logging road blockade during the summer
of 1993. Over 900 protesters were arrested, including elderly people, while worldwide media coverage turned Clayoquot Sound
into a popular icon for temperate rainforest conservation. A song composed by Bob Bossin to tribute the Clayoquot forest activists
is featured on the YouTube video:
Sulpher Passage (left).

Mass arrest day, 9 August 1993.Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island, BC

The campaign to save the old growth rainforest remnants of Clayoquot Sound has gone
on for almost three decades. Scores of visitors to BC have taken part and witnessed the horrors of industrial
clearcut logging firsthand. The harsh police operation to break the blockade (right) by forcible removals and
arrests was shocking to those who believed that in Canada acts of police state repression were not possible.
One German visitor, Philipp Kuechler, has created a website about the destruction of BC's old growth forests
to provide an alternative to the BC government's "ecotourism" propaganda:
Kahlschlag
fuer Deutschland (NaturSchatz).

One peaceful "sitdown" demonstration (left) on 9 August 1993 resulted in
352 arrests by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. See the documentary video:
Save Clayoquot
Sound. Included is a scene of Australian rock star Peter Garett (Midnight Oil) telling the crowd that BC
forest practices are "brutal, primitive and barbaric: everyone, especially young people,
can see that it's wrong, it's wrong and it's wrong" to destroy ancient forest biodiversity.
Garett (appointed Australian Environment Minister in 2008) performed in a Clayoquot Sound clearcut:
Beds
Are Burning.

Logging road blockade, August 1993.Photo: Aldo de Moor

Protest against logging, BC Legislature, 1993.
Photo: Aldo de Moor

One of the many Europeans at Clayoquot Sound in 1993 was
Aldo de Moor from Tilburg in the Netherlands, who documented the occasion. One photo shows the arrested protesters walking to their
mass trial at the BC Court in Victoria (left). "It has been a formative experience in my life, seeing a grassroots
community emerge of people from all walks of life, professions,
and political views, together effectively fighting an unjust decision despite all the differences and b opposition. The
incredible 'sense of community' I experienced then has inspired me ever since and has made me go into the field of community
informatics." Aldo de Moor put his photos of the summer of 1993 on the Internet as "an inspiration"
and as "a tribute to the people who had the courage to be arrested because of a societal cause
they bly believed in." See:
The Struggle for
Clayoquot Sound.

Dutch born nature photographer Adrian Dorst was appalled by the
wholesale destruction of Clayoquot Sound (right), one of the most magnificent wilderness areas left on Earth. His stunning
photos are featured in the classic 1988 nature preservation book "Clayoquot: On the Wild Side" which played a
pivotal educational role in exposing the shocking extent of the environmental crimes being committed.

The 1994 market campaign by the Clayoquot Rainforest Coalition against MacMillan Bloedel
resulted in a loss of business (above). As a result of this pressure, in 1995 the BC government accepted the
recommendations of an international panel of scientists that included a moratorium on logging in pristine old growth watersheds.
In fact, the clearcut logging of the ancient forests did not end as promised in 1995. Nor did the destruction
end in 2000 with the designation of Clayoquot Sound as a UN Biosphere Reserve. Vast profits have been
made by clearcut logging the ancient forests of the Northwest Coast, and government policy is to continue
this destruction. Without legislation the multinational corporations will not stop until there is nothing left.
The best efforts of forest activists over many decades have done little to slow the frightening rate of deforestation.

Take the example of California's
ancient redwood forests, the southern extent of the Northwest Coast temperate rainforest. An environmental
center in Garberville reports: "Industrial logging corporations hold the titles for much of the
private forestlands in our region, and present threats to ecosystem health and economic stability. Years
of corporate logging has created a wasteland of clearcuts and roads beyond the visible 'beauty strips'
retained near highways and towns"
EPIC (Environmental
Protection Information Center). Over two decades of protests against Pacific Lumber Company (PL or Palco) did nothing
to stop its flagrant destruction of the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County. Many blockades were held in the
county capital of Eureka, such as the one in 2004 when activists carrying a protest banner "Cutting Tomorrow's
Forests Today" (right) stopped PL owned logging trucks and were arrested.

Industrial deforestation dominates the coastal landscapes of
California, Oregon and Washington where less than three percent of the ancient temperate rainforest survives. The dismal
failure of American legislators to protect these beseiged forests spurred the formation of a dedicated network of activists and
environmental groups. Many of the defenders of the redwoods are based in Humboldt County, California. This is the location
of Headwaters Forest (right), home to the last unprotected giant redwood trees on Earth. Although some parts are protected,
much of the Headwaters watershed is private forest land held by the Pacific Lumber Company (PL). Since 1984, when PL
was taken over by Maxxam Inc of Texas (owned by the notorious Charles Hurwitz), there have been over two decades of non violent
civil protests, treesits, arrests, lawsuits and court injunctions against activists dedicated to preventing the destruction
of what little remains of the ancient Humboldt redwoods.

Judi Bari (1949 - 1997) was a prominent activist and Humboldt Earth First!er. She was a principal
organizer of the Headwaters Forest Campaign which resulted in protesters being victimized by Humboldt County police as well
as by PL employees. In 1990 Bari organized the landmark anti logging demonstration Redwood Summer and launched her
revolutionary "Forests Forever Initiative" to make old growth destruction illegal. For her preservation efforts, Bari was
the target of a vicious smear campaign by the logging industry, she received death threats, and she was severely maimed by
a car bomb. See:
Judi Bari Resoures
(Albion Monitor).

Julia Butterfly Hill, 13 November 1998.Photo: Shaun Walker

LovePod Treesit, Headwaters Forest, 1998.
Photo: Barry Tessman

The young forest defender
and expert tree climber David Nathan Chain (1974 - 1998), known also as "Gypsy," was tragically killed by a logger at the Grizzly Bear Creek redwood grove in 1998. See:
Headwaters Index
(1999, Albion Monitor). Gypsy took part in the Headwaters Campaign and helped to install the LovePod in an ancient
cedar at Bell Creek (above). A photo shows him traversing high above the redwood canopy on his way to the LovePod
in 1998 (right). This amazing treehouse had 15 steel panels suspended from a central cable on the trunk and was
designed and built by forest activists Peaceman and Tigger.

Forest activists typically engage in various
displays of non violent civil disobedience: climbing and occupying trees (left), blockading roads, locking themselves
to logging equipment, and providing tactical support for fellow activists. Such protest has resulted
in arrest, physical abuse, legal suits and criminal prosecutions. Since 1985, when treesitting began as a forest
defence tactic, many treesits have been established in Humboldt County as a last resort tactic for tree protection.

Gypsy traversing to LovePod, 1998.
Photo: Tigger (text added)

Jerry Treesit, Freshwater Creek, 2004.Photo: Amaret

In 2004 the Fern Gully Treesit was set up in one of the few
remaining tracts of old growth in the Freshwater Creek area of the Headwaters Forest in northern Humboldt County.
By 2005, the treesit had become an arboreal village with 22 trees tied together for canopy travel. A treetop
raincatch system transported water 40 ft (12 m) down to a running tap at the platform and a solar panel was installed
at 207 ft (63 m) in a tree named Watsi. The arboreal village was destroyed during a raid by the logging company, but
the treesit continued. The Nanning Creek Treesit was located in Marbled Murrelet habitat in southern Humboldt County.
It began in 2005 and was dedicated to the protection of "Spooner," a redwood with a height of 297 ft
(90 m) and circumference of 45 ft (14 m). The treesit was raided by Pacific Lumber Company in 2007 but was
reestablished.

Headwaters Forest has hosted a number of treesits on
magnificent endangered redwoods such as "Jerry" at Freshwater Creek, named after Jerry Garcia of the
Grateful Dead (left). Defying rain and inclement weather, treesitter Jeny Card, aka "Remedy," spent
361 days before being extracted by a logging company paid treeclimber.

Freshwater Creek redwood, 2005.
Humboldt County, California

"Humboldt Pepper Spray 8," 20 September 2004.
Photo: Nicholas Wilson

Non violent civil disobedience is fundamental to American traditions and the pepper spray assaults by
Humboldt County police on forest activists in 1998 were challenged in court. The lawsuit was intended to uphold
and protect the right to peaceful protest and symbolic action. Victory came on 20 September 2004 when the Headwaters Forest
protesters - known as the "Humboldt Pepper Spray 8" - posed for a victory photo outside the San Francisco Federal
Building (left). Finally their long ordeal and civil rights suit against Humboldt County and the City of Eureka had come to
an end. See:
No Pepper Spray!

With this "pepper spray" case, forest activism has gone from the frontline politics of
blockading logging roads to the sophisticated legal defense strategies necessary to take the corporate timber thugs and
their partners in crime to court.

Naturally fallen ancient redwood tree.
Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Humboldt County was named after the famous 19th century German naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt, who
would have been pleased that a forest park with some of the tallest living beings on Earth is protected under his name. But
as one of the earliest European scientists to celebrate big trees, Humboldt most certainly would have thought it tragic that
most of the gigantic native trees of California, some well over 1,000 years in age, have been
ruthlessly destroyed. Today the ecosystem that nurtured them is on the verge of extinction along with species that
depend on it. Among the most notorious offenders is the reviled Pacific Lumber Company. See its atrocious record of violations:
EPIC (Environmental
Protection Information Center).

In 1997 to prevent the destruction of an ancient redwood tree located in the Headwaters Forest
above the town of Stafford in Humboldt County, forest activist Julia Butterfly Hill began a treesit on
10 December which lasted until 18 December 1999 (right). From her arboreal platform on the
giant tree which she affectionately called Luna, Julia wrote: "Here I can be the voice and face of this tree, and for the
whole forest that can't speak for itself"
Circle of Life.

When President Theodore Roosevelt addressed the California
legislature in 1903 in an effort to protect the redwoods of Humboldt County, he pleaded: "I appeal to you to save these
mighty trees, these wonderful monuments of beauty." His plea resulted in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park being
established in 1905 "to be forever maintained in its primaeval state." Today the popular park is
the largest remaining contiguous ancient redwood forest in the world (left).

Julia Butterfly Hill and Luna, 1998.Photo: Shaun Walker

As a result of her long and dedicated treesit, Julia was able to
negotiate the protection of Luna with Pacific Lumber Company
before she descended. The agreement did not prevent a vicious chainsaw attack on Luna in 2001
by an unknown assailant whose aim was to maim and kill the ancient tree which had become an icon of the forest defence
movement and an object of hatred for loggers (right).

Luna with braces, visited by Julia, 2002.Headwaters Forest, Humboldt County

Julia visits Luna after attack, 2000.Photo: J. Ficklin

Tree doctors have devised braces and collars of metal to allow Luna to heal (left),
but her long term fate is uncertain. In 2002, following a bittersweet visit, Julia reported: "The metal
braces and cables are very sad to look at although I know that they are a big part of why she continues to
stand. Luna is doing incredibly well considering how severely she was injured, and this of course brings me
a lot of hope and joy."

At long last in 2008, after over two decades of ravaging the ancient surviving
redwood groves of Humboldt County, the reviled Pacific Lumber Company collapsed through bankruptcy. It was taken
over by the Mendocino Redwood Company (MRC) in September 2008 and renamed Humboldt Redwood Company.
MRC says it will end clearcutting and the killing of the ancient trees but this remains to be seen. MRC is owned by the
Fisher family (founder of the Gap chain) and was formed in 1998 with the takeover of Louisiana Pacific. Overlogging by
MRC has been the focus of environmental protests; in 2002, for example, activists drove a
200 year old redwood stump logged in Mendocino County by MRC across the nation. It was displayed at a
demonstration outside a Gap store on New York's Fifth Avenue during the meeting of the World Economic
Forum on 1 February 2002 (right).

Protest against Gap, New York City, 2002.
Photo: Brian Snyder

Siskiyous clearcuts, 2005.Google Earth, Native Forest Council

Few intact native forests are left in Oregon yet the US Forest Service continues to
promote logging and the conversion of public forests into industrial tree farms. Protests against the
logging of Umpqua National Forest in 1999 resulted in failure when Bear Paw, a roadless wilderness
area, was clearcut by the Boise Cascade Company (right). See the shocking before & after photos:
Paw
Timber Sale (Umpqua Watersheds).

Clearcut logging on the Northwest Coast
has led to disastrous environmental conditions in many watersheds. Logging violations can easily be
seen in satellite and aircraft views that simulate and model the terrain.
An example is the Google Earth view of Siskiyous Forest of Oregon (left). Such clearcutting scenes of
endangered forests support the demand to end all resource extraction on publicly owned lands:
Native Forest Council.

To protest against old growth logging in Oregon's Siskiyou National
Forest by the Silver Creek Lumber Company, a demonstration was held on 16 May 2005 (right).
At the Green Bridge five brave women joined arms and prevented a loaded logging truck from
continuing on to the Roseburg Forest Products Mill (above). The women were all arrested and
spent the night in jail. Their spirited protest inspired a song dedicated to them:
Sisters
of the Siskiyou (YouTube).

When the US Forest Service approved a massive timber
sale in the Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon - one of the largest and most botanically diverse wildlands left in the
US - it was opposed by more than 95 percent of the public. The Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center was formed in 1997 to
fight the ramped up logging policies. See:
KS Wild. In 2005
ancient forest activists and concerned citizens began a logging road blockade at the popularly named Green Bridge (left).

Green Bridge, 16 May 2005.Photo: Justine Rohde

Green Bridge has been the site of many protests against old growth logging in the
Siskiyou National Forest and of several crackdowns and arrests by police (right). The forest activists believe that unjust laws
must be confronted with civil disobedience. They are part of a popular ancient forest protection movement on the
Northwest Coast that shows no sign of abating: "This broad coalition - of local woodsmen, business owners,
teachers, retirees, sportsmen, students and Earth First! - is united in a historic confrontation. The outcome
of this struggle will impact national forest policy for decades to come"
Oxygen Collective.

Among those arrested was Joan Norman (1933 - 2005),
a long time peace activist and defender of ancient forests who once remained in jail for 16 days rather than post bail.
She spoke eloquently of her dedication to the big trees: "No, I am not afraid. I am 72 years old . . .
I would rather go out in a blaze, defending the world I love. I am more afraid that my grandchildren will think
I did not try hard enough to leave them a legacy of peace, and a world worth living in. I don't want them to
know the beauty of trees by looking at a book. I want them to be able to walk among 800 year old trees and
know that is our destiny"
Oxygen
Collective.

Ancient tree stump, Styx Valley.Tasmania, Australia

In 2005 young activists from around the world who had participated in a forest
camp in Gippsland, Australia, posed for a group photo (right) with the banner:
"Extinction is Forever." Following the camp, forest activists took part
in a blockade at the nearby Eden Woodchip Mill to protest against the destruction of the last old
growth forest on mainland Australia, home to endangered species such as the "Long
footed Potoroo" (Potorous longipes), the "Sooty Owl" (Tyto tenebricosa)
and the "Powerful Owl" (Ninox strenu). See:
Goongerah Environment Centre.

Elsewhere in the world, too, the situation is bleak for what remains of the besieged old growth
forests. In 2005 two prominent forest activists were murdered in Brazil for their defense of the rapidly disappearing
Amazon rainforest: Dorothy Stang (1931 - 2005) and Dionisio Ribeiro Filho (1946 - 2005). Also Australia, another
British colonial country like Canada, is still dominated by unsustainable "strip and sell" policies toward
the exploitation of the natural resources (left).

For almost four decades, Australian conservationists have opposed woodchipping at Eden.
On 2 July 2006 over 600 people from around the country gathered at the Eden Woodchip Mill to protest (above).
Earlier that year four women activists had been arrested and charged in court for stopping the mill operation
by locking themselves to the heavy equipment. One of them, India Ilett, explained why she felt compelled to draw
attention to the continuing tragedy of native forest destruction: "160 trucks a day take loads of logs to
the chip mill, every one of those logs was formerly the living home to hundreds of creatures, some of them
threatened . . . These animals can't speak for themselves, I was there for them"
ChipStop.

The Chipstop campaign focuses on how native forest policy and management is
driven by woodchipping. It supports environmental activism and corporate targeting as well as encouraging
nature education through poetry (right).

Australian activists accuse the Japanese owned
Daishowa Paper Products Company of unethical practices. Since 1969, when it began operating a woodchip mill at
Eden in New South Wales, it has processed over 30 million tons of trees (below).

Another ancient Australian forest that has been devastated by the
woodchip industry is in the Styx Valley of Tasmania. The "gum" or mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) trees that grow
here are the tallest in the world; they have been known to reach heights in excess of 130 m (although the tallest specimen
living today is 96.5 m) and can reach 400 years in age. For decades, the forest industry has clearcut logged these huge trees
and processed them as wood chips to be shipped to Japan for cardboard. By 1996 only around 13 percent of the big gum trees
remained. Among them was "El Grande," declared to be the largest hardwood tree and flowering plant on Earth when
it was discovered in 2002. Almost four centuries old, El Grande was 79 m high with a girth of 20 m. Soon after her
discovery, the tree was killed following a regeneration burn by state foresters (right).

In 2003, angered by the wanton destruction of El Grande, The Wilderness Society organized a
protest of some 4,000 people. Environmentalists complained that El Grande was never valued by government forestry
officials. In 2004, an international campaign was organized against Australia's largest logging
company, the reviled Gunns Ltd. A protest by Greenpeace in Brussels exposed Bomaco, the Belgian timber
company for importing Tasmanian old growth wood. To punish the Australian activists, including two Green politians,
Gunns launched a $6.3 million legal case against them.

In an attempt to halt the destruction of the Styx Valley, in 2003 activists formed human
barricades to stop bulldozers and logging trucks, and erected tree platforms in Gandalf's Staff (right).
Finally, after 18 months of campaigning, the state agency Forestry Tasmania announced that it would protect Gandalf's
Staff under its Giant Tree Policy, which unfortunately did not provide an adequate buffer zone for the tree. Over
85 percent of old growth forests has been logged in Tasmania and ancient trees continue to be clearcut
logged by Gunns, which in 2008 was given approval for a huge new pulp mill. Also in the southwestern state of Victoria,
the native regnans forests of the Otway Ranges are endangered by industrial forestry.
OREN (Otway Ranges
Environment Network) conducted a successful decade long campaign to stop the destruction of native forests
for woodchips, leading to the 2005 legislation that creates a new Great Otway National Park and prohibits all
clearcut logging for woodchips on public land by 2008.

In 2003, to prevent the killing of a grand old eucalyptus tree named "Gandalf's Staff" in the Styx
Valley of Tasmania, activists built a 65 m tree platform equipped with solar power, a satellite phone, laptop computers and
a month's worth of food. To explore the possibilities of a more permanent aboreal camp for future protests, architect Andrew
Maynard designed a structure spread over three trees, allowing as many as six tree sitters at a time to occupy the platform

Gandalf's Staff, Styx Valley, 2007.Tasmania, Australia

"Styx Devastation: A Global Issue," 2006.Tasmania, Australia

On World Environment Day, 5 June 2007, a demonstration was held in a massive industrial log
dump in the Highlands region of the State of Victora (right). Australian activists accuse politicians of an "act
of unseemly doublespeak" whereby "the country that is perhaps most impacted by climate change continues
to log its last centuries old trees found in ancient forest ecosystems vital for holding both carbon and water"
and they call on political leaders to end their hypocrisy and immediately protect the native forests. Hopes were
raised when rockstar - activist Peter Garett, who in 1993 took part in the Clayoquot Sound protest, was
appointed Australia's new Environment Minister in 2008. The question is: will he have the strength to
contain the corporate greed of the logging establishment?

Protests in the Styx Valley of Tasmania continue
with activists stressing the global role that native old growth forests have as carbon sinks (left). Logging these
forests causes massive carbon emissions and reduces their carbon carrying capacity. Activists in Australia
increasingly demand that politicians tackle climate change by protecting the native forests for their important carbon,
water and biodiversity values.

Tree activists accuse Forestry Tasmania of allowing illegal logging operations to occur in the
World Heritage valued forests of the Weld valley and Florentine, encouraging a culture of violence and intimidation
against peaceful protestors, such as the Weld Angel (above and right). For over nine
hours Allana Beltran perched above a logging road until she was forcibly removed by a crane and arrested. See:
Weld Angel.
"They don't just clip their wings" writes an incredulous Italian journalist, "They haul them out of trees, march them
off to court, then charge them for being just that. Angels. Then they sue the lovers of these angels, even when they're dying"
Huon Valley
Environment Centre.